Thread: CLI

The Thread CLI sample demonstrates how to send commands to a Thread device using the OpenThread Command Line Interface (CLI). The CLI is integrated into the Zephyr shell.

This sample supports optional Experimental Thread 1.2 extension, which can be turned on or off. See Activating sample extensions for details.

Overview

The sample demonstrates the usage of commands listed in OpenThread CLI Reference. OpenThread CLI is integrated into the system shell accessible over serial connection. To indicate a Thread command, the ot keyword needs to precede the command.

The amount of commands you can test depends on the application configuration. The CLI sample comes with the full set of OpenThread functionalities enabled (CONFIG_OPENTHREAD_NORDIC_LIBRARY_MASTER).

If used alone, the sample allows you to test the network status. It is recommended to use at least two development kits running the same sample to be able to test communication.

Diagnostic module

By default, the CLI sample comes with the CONFIG_OPENTHREAD_NORDIC_LIBRARY_MASTER feature set enabled, which allows you to use Zephyr’s diagnostic module with its diag commands. Use these commands for manually checking hardware-related functionalities without running a Thread network. For example, when adding a new functionality or during the manufacturing process to ensure radio communication is working. See Testing diagnostic module section for an example.

Note

If you disable the CONFIG_OPENTHREAD_NORDIC_LIBRARY_MASTER feature set, you can enable the diagnostic module with the CONFIG_OPENTHREAD_DIAG Kconfig option.

Experimental Thread 1.2 extension

This optional extension allows you to test available features from the Thread 1.2 Specification. You can enable these features either by activating the overlay extension as described below or by setting Thread 1.2 Specification options.

Certification tests with CLI sample

The Thread CLI sample can be used for running certification tests. See Thread certification for information on how to use this sample on Thread Certification Test Harness.

Minimal configuration

This optional extension demonstrates an optimized configuration for the Thread CLI sample. The provided configurations optimize the memory footprint of the sample for single protocol and multiprotocol use.

For more information, see Memory footprint optimization.

FEM support

Note

Software FEM support is not present on nRF53 Series devices yet. For now, it also cannot be combined with multiprotocol operation.

You can add support for the nRF21540 front-end module to the sample. See Radio front-end module (FEM) support for more information.

To add support for the nRF21540 FEM, add the provided dts-nrf21540-fem.overlay devicetree overlay file when building. The file is located in the samples/openthread/common folder. Make sure that the GPIOs in the file correspond to those in which your front-end module is connected.

Note

You must add the provided overlay file if you use the nRF21540 EK. If you use the nRF21540 DK, build your application for the nrf21540dk_nrf52840 board. The devicetree for the nRF21540 DK already contains the required FEM configuration, so you do not need to add the overlay file.

See Set devicetree overlays for different ways of adding the overlay file.

The easiest way to add the file when building is to set it in the DTC_OVERLAY_FILE variable. However, doing so will override the default settings. For some boards, this sample requires additional overlay files, which are automatically included when building with the default settings. When you set the DTC_OVERLAY_FILE variable, you must specify all overlay files that are needed for building. Check the boards folder to see the additional overlay files.

Follow the instructions in Providing CMake options to specify the DTC_OVERLAY_FILE variable. For example, to build the sample from the command line for an nRF52833 DK with an attached nRF21540 EK, invoke the following command within the sample directory:

west build -b nrf52833dk_nrf52833 -- -DDTC_OVERLAY_FILE="boards/nrf52833dk_nrf52833.overlay;../common/dts-nrf21540-fem.overlay"

Alternatively, you can copy the contents of dts-nrf21540-fem.overlay to the board’s overlay file.

To add support for other front-end modules, add the respective overlay files in the same way.

Requirements

The sample supports the following development kits for testing the network status:

Hardware platforms	PCA	Board name	Build target
nRF5340 DK	PCA10095	nrf5340dk_nrf5340	nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpuapp
nRF52840 DK	PCA10056	nrf52840dk_nrf52840	nrf52840dk_nrf52840
nRF52833 DK	PCA10100	nrf52833dk_nrf52833	nrf52833dk_nrf52833
nRF21540 DK	PCA10112	nrf21540dk_nrf52840	nrf21540dk_nrf52840

Optionally, you can use one or more compatible development kits programmed with this sample or another Thread sample for testing communication or diagnostics and Configuring on-mesh Thread commissioning.

Thread 1.2 extension requirements

If you enable the Experimental Thread 1.2 extension, you will need nRF Sniffer for 802.15.4 to observe messages sent from the router to the leader kit when Testing Thread 1.2 features.

User interface

All the interactions with the application are handled using serial communication. See OpenThread CLI Reference for the list of available serial commands.

Building and running

Make sure to enable the OpenThread stack before building and testing this sample. See Thread for more information.

This sample can be found under samples/openthread/cli in the nRF Connect SDK folder structure.

See Building and programming a sample application for information about how to build and program the application.

To update OpenThread libraries provided by the nrfxlib, please invoke west build -b nrf52840dk_nrf52840 -t install_openthread_libraries.

Activating sample extensions

To activate the optional extensions supported by this sample, modify OVERLAY_CONFIG in the following manner:

• For the experimental Thread 1.2 variant, set overlay-thread_1_2.conf.

• For the minimal single protocol variant, set overlay-minimal_singleprotocol.conf.

• For the minimal multiprotocol variant, set overlay-minimal_multiprotocol.conf.

See Providing CMake options for instructions on how to add this option. For more information about using configuration overlay files, see Important Build System Variables in the Zephyr documentation.

Testing

After building the sample and programming it to your development kit, test it by performing the following steps:

1. Turn on the development kit.

2. Set up the serial connection with the development kit. For more details, see How to connect with PuTTY.

   Note

   This sample has Hardware Flow Control mechanism enabled by default in serial communication. When enabled, it allows devices to manage transmission by informing each other about their current state, and ensures more reliable connection in high-speed communication scenarios.

3. Configure the required Thread network parameters with the ot channel, ot panid, and ot masterkey commands. Make sure to use the same parameters for all nodes that you add to the network. The following example uses the default OpenThread parameters:

   uart:~$ ot channel 11
   Done
   uart:~$ ot panid 0xabcd
   Done
   uart:~$ ot masterkey 00112233445566778899aabbccddeeff
   Done
   

4. Enable the Thread network with the ot ifconfig up and ot thread start commands:

   uart:~$ ot ifconfig up
   Done
   uart:~$ ot thread start
   Done
   

5. Invoke some of the OpenThread commands:

   1. Test the state of the Thread network with the ot state command. For example:

      uart:~$ ot state
      leader
      Done
      

   2. Get the Thread network name with the ot networkname command. For example:

      uart:~$ ot networkname
      ot_zephyr
      Done
      

   3. Get the IP addresses of the current thread network with the ot ipaddr command. For example:

      uart:~$ ot ipaddr
      fdde:ad00:beef:0:0:ff:fe00:800
      fdde:ad00:beef:0:3102:d00b:5cbe:a61
      fe80:0:0:0:8467:5746:a29f:1196
      Done
      

Testing with more kits

If you are using more than one development kit for testing the CLI sample, you can also complete additional testing procedures.

Note

The following testing procedures assume you are using two development kits.

Testing communication between kits

To test communication between kits, complete the following steps:

1. Make sure both development kits are programmed with the CLI sample.

2. Turn on the developments kits.

3. Set up the serial connection with both development kits. For more details, see How to connect with PuTTY.

   Note

   This sample has Hardware Flow Control mechanism enabled by default in serial communication. When enabled, it allows devices to manage transmission by informing each other about their current state, and ensures more reliable connection in high-speed communication scenarios.

4. Configure the required Thread network parameters with the ot channel, ot panid, and ot masterkey commands. Make sure to use the same parameters for all nodes that you add to the network. The following example uses the default OpenThread parameters:

   uart:~$ ot channel 11
   Done
   uart:~$ ot panid 0xabcd
   Done
   uart:~$ ot masterkey 00112233445566778899aabbccddeeff
   Done
   

5. Enable the Thread network with the ot ifconfig up and ot thread start commands:

   uart:~$ ot ifconfig up
   Done
   uart:~$ ot thread start
   Done
   

6. Test communication between the kits with the following command:

   ot ping ip_address_of_the_first_kit

   For example:

   uart:~$ ot ping fdde:ad00:beef:0:3102:d00b:5cbe:a61
   16 bytes from fdde:ad00:beef:0:3102:d00b:5cbe:a61: icmp_seq=1 hlim=64 time=22ms
   

Testing diagnostic module

To test diagnostic commands, complete the following steps:

1. Make sure both development kits are programmed with the CLI sample.

2. Turn on the developments kits.

3. Set up the serial connection with both development kits. For more details, see How to connect with PuTTY.

   Note

   This sample has Hardware Flow Control mechanism enabled by default in serial communication. When enabled, it allows devices to manage transmission by informing each other about their current state, and ensures more reliable connection in high-speed communication scenarios..

4. Make sure that the diagnostic module is enabled and configured with proper radio channel and transmission power by running the following commands on both devices:

   uart:~$ ot diag start
   start diagnostics mode
   status 0x00
   Done
   uart:~$ ot diag channel 11
   set channel to 11
   status 0x00
   Done
   uart:~$ ot diag power 0
   set tx power to 0 dBm
   status 0x00
   Done
   

5. Transmit a fixed number of packets with the given length from one of the devices. For example, to transmit 20 packets that contain 100 B of random data, run the following command:

   uart:~$ ot diag send 20 100
   sending 0x14 packet(s), length 0x64
   status 0x00
   Done
   

6. Read the radio statistics on the other device by running the following command:

   uart:~$ ot diag stats
   received packets: 20
   sent packets: 0
   first received packet: rssi=-29, lqi=255
   last received packet: rssi=-30, lqi=255
   Done
   

Testing Thread 1.2 features

To test the Thread 1.2 features, complete the following steps:

1. Make sure both development kits are programmed with the CLI sample with the Experimental Thread 1.2 extension enabled.

2. Turn on the developments kits.

3. Set up the serial connection with both development kits. For more details, see How to connect with PuTTY.

4. Configure the required Thread network parameters with the ot channel, ot panid, and ot masterkey commands. Make sure to use the same parameters for all nodes that you add to the network. The following example uses the default OpenThread parameters:

   uart:~$ ot channel 11
   Done
   uart:~$ ot panid 0xabcd
   Done
   uart:~$ ot masterkey 00112233445566778899aabbccddeeff
   Done
   

5. Enable the Thread network with the ot ifconfig up and ot thread start commands:

   uart:~$ ot ifconfig up
   Done
   uart:~$ ot thread start
   Done
   

6. Test the state of the Thread network with the ot state command to see which kit is the leader:

   uart:~$ ot state
   leader
   Done
   

7. On the leader kit, enable the Backbone Router function:

   uart:~$ ot bbr enable
   DIo:
    State changed! Flags: 0x02001000 Current role: 4
   I: State changed! Flags: 0x00000200 Current role: 4
   I: State changed! Flags: 0x02000001 Current role: 4
   

8. On the leader kit, configure the Domain prefix:

   uart:~$ ot prefix add fd00:7d03:7d03:7d03::/64 prosD med
   Done
   uart:~$ ot netdata register
   Done
   I: State changed! Flags: 0x00000200 Current role: 4
   I: State changed! Flags: 0x00001001 Current role: 4
   

9. On the router kit, display the autoconfigured Domain Unicast Address and set another one manually:

   uart:~$ ot ipaddr
   fd00:7d03:7d03:7d03:ee2d:eed:4b59:2736
   fdde:ad00:beef:0:0:ff:fe00:c400
   fdde:ad00:beef:0:e0fc:dc28:1d12:8c2
   fe80:0:0:0:acbd:53bf:1461:a861
   uart:~$ ot dua iid 0004000300020001
   Io:
   State changed! Flags: 0x00000003 Current role: 3
   uart:~$ ot ipaddr
   fd00:7d03:7d03:7d03:4:3:2:1
   fdde:ad00:beef:0:0:ff:fe00:c400
   fdde:ad00:beef:0:e0fc:dc28:1d12:8c2
   fe80:0:0:0:acbd:53bf:1461:a861
   Done
   

10. On the router kit, configure a multicast address with a scope greater than realm-local:

    uart:~$ ot ipmaddr add ff04::1
    Done
    : State changed! Flags: 0x00001000 Current role: 3
    uart:~$ ot ipmaddr
    ff04:0:0:0:0:0:0:1
    ff33:40:fdde:ad00:beef:0:0:1
    ff32:40:fdde:ad00:beef:0:0:1
    ff02:0:0:0:0:0:0:2
    ff03:0:0:0:0:0:0:2
    ff02:0:0:0:0:0:0:1
    ff03:0:0:0:0:0:0:1
    ff03:0:0:0:0:0:0:fc
    Done
    

    The router kit will send an MLR.req message and a DUA.req message to the leader kit (Backbone Router). This can be observed using the nRF Sniffer for 802.15.4.

11. On the leader kit, list the IPv6 addresses:

    uart:~$ ot ipaddr
    fd00:7d03:7d03:7d03:84c9:572d:be24:cbe
    fdde:ad00:beef:0:0:ff:fe00:fc10
    fdde:ad00:beef:0:0:ff:fe00:fc38
    fdde:ad00:beef:0:0:ff:fe00:fc00
    fdde:ad00:beef:0:0:ff:fe00:7000
    fdde:ad00:beef:0:a318:bf4f:b9c6:5f7d
    fe80:0:0:0:10b1:93ea:c0ee:eeb7
    

    Note down the link-local address. You must use this address when sending Link Metrics commands from the router kit to the leader kit.

    The following steps use the address fe80:0:0:0:10b1:93ea:c0ee:eeb7. Replace it with the link-local address of your leader kit in all commands.

12. Run the following commands on the router kit:

    1. Reattach the router kit as SED with a polling period of 3 seconds:

       uart:~$ ot pollperiod 3000
       Done
       uart:~$ ot mode -
       Done
       

    2. Perform a Link Metrics query (Single Probe):

       uart:~$ ot linkmetrics query fe80:0:0:0:10b1:93ea:c0ee:eeb7 single qmr
       Done
       Received Link Metrics Report from: fe80:0:0:0:10b1:93ea:c0ee:eeb7
       - LQI: 220 (Exponential Moving Average)
       - Margin: 60 (dB) (Exponential Moving Average)
       - RSSI: -40 (dBm) (Exponential Moving Average)
       

    3. Send a Link Metrics Management Request to configure a Forward Tracking Series:

       uart:~$ ot linkmetrics mgmt fe80:0:0:0:10b1:93ea:c0ee:eeb7 forward 1 dra pqmr
       Done
       Received Link Metrics Management Response from: fe80:0:0:0:10b1:93ea:c0ee:eeb7
       Status: Success
       

    4. Send an MLE Link Probe message to the peer:

       uart:~$ ot linkmetrics probe fe80:0:0:0:10b1:93ea:c0ee:eeb7 1 10
       Done
       

    5. Perform a Link Metrics query (Forward Tracking Series):

       uart:~$ ot linkmetrics query fe80:0:0:0:10b1:93ea:c0ee:eeb7 forward 1
       Done
       Received Link Metrics Report from: fe80:0:0:0:10b1:93ea:c0ee:eeb7
       - PDU Counter: 13 (Count/Summation)
       - LQI: 212 (Exponential Moving Average)
       - Margin: 60 (dB) (Exponential Moving Average)
       - RSSI: -40 (dBm) (Exponential Moving Average)
       

    6. Send a Link Metrics Management Request to register an Enhanced ACK-based Probing:

       uart:~$ ot linkmetrics mgmt fe80:0:0:0:10b1:93ea:c0ee:eeb7 enhanced-ack register qm
       Done
       Received Link Metrics Management Response from: fe80:0:0:0:10b1:93ea:c0ee:eeb7
       Status: Success
       

    7. Send a Link Metrics Management Request to clear an Enhanced ACK-based Probing:

       uart:~$ ot linkmetrics mgmt fe80:0:0:0:10b1:93ea:c0ee:eeb7 enhanced-ack clear
       Done
       Received Link Metrics Management Response from: fe80:0:0:0:10b1:93ea:c0ee:eeb7
       Status: Success
       

13. Verify the Coordinated Sampled Listening (CSL) functionality.

    The following steps use the address fe80:0:0:0:acbd:53bf:1461:a861. Replace it with the link-local address of your router kit in all commands.

    1. Send an ICMPv6 Echo Request from the leader kit to link-local address of the router kit:

       uart:~$ ot ping fe80:0:0:0:acbd:53bf:1461:a861
       16 bytes from fe80:0:0:0:acbd:53bf:1461:a861: icmp_seq=2 hlim=64 time=2494ms
       1 packets transmitted, 1 packets received. Packet loss = 0.0%. Round-trip min/a
       Done
       

       Observe that there is a long latency on the reply of up to 3000 ms. This is due to the indirect transmission mechanism based on data polling.

    2. Enable a CSL Receiver on the router kit (now SED) by configuring a CSL period of 0.5 seconds:

       uart:~$ ot csl period 3125
       Done
       

    3. Send an ICMPv6 Echo Request from the leader kit to the link-local address of the router kit:

       uart:~$ ot ping fe80:0:0:0:acbd:53bf:1461:a861
       uart:~$ W: TX_STARTED event will be triggered without delay
       16 bytes from fe80:0:0:0:acbd:53bf:1461:a861: icmp_seq=3 hlim=64 time=421ms
       1 packets transmitted, 1 packets received. Packet loss = 0.0%. Round-trip min/a
       Done
       

       Observe that the reply latency is reduced to a value below 500 ms. The reduction occurs because the transmission from the leader is performed via CSL, based on the CSL Information Elements sent by the CSL Receiver.

Dependencies

This sample uses the following Zephyr libraries:

• Kernel Services:

  • include/kernel.h

• Thread protocol

The following dependencies are added by the optional multiprotocol Bluetooth LE extension:

• SoftDevice Controller

• Nordic UART Service (NUS)

• Zephyr’s Bluetooth:

  • include/bluetooth/bluetooth.h

  • include/bluetooth/gatt.h

  • include/bluetooth/hci.h

  • include/bluetooth/uuid.h